Magical Blueberry Vanilla Chia Seed Jam

Before we left for our trip, I found myself with a couple pints of blueberries and a few spotted bananas to use up. I’ve been meaning to make my strawberry chia seed jam for a while now, so I ended up adapting my recipe using blueberries, all-natural sweetener, and a touch of vanilla. It turned out lovely and was ready in 20 minutes flat!

This is the strawberry chia seed jam that I made a couple years ago:

Chia seeds are magic. I love using them as thickeners in all kinds of foods from homemade jam to vegan overnight oats to pasta sauces.

This strawberry chia seed “jam” is a tasty filling for my Healthy Strawberry Oat Squares! You can use any kind of filling that you like in these oat squares. They remind me a lot of a healthy nutri-grain bar.

This is not a traditional jam recipe by any means, but then again I’m not one for following traditions all that often when it comes to food. Instead of using white sugar, I used maple syrup to lightly sweeten the berries. The maple and vanilla extract do a great job of bringing out the flavours in the blueberries without overpowering them. Chia seeds thicken the mixture nicely while adding a tasteless burst of nutrition in every bite.

If you’ve got 20 minutes, you can make this jam. It’s a snap. All you do is add blueberries and a touch of maple syrup into a pot. Bring it to a low boil and then reduce it to simmer for about 5 minutes or so. Then stir in the chia seeds and simmer it for another 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently until it’s as thick as you desire.

Before adding the chia seeds, the blueberries will be quite watery.

Have no fear chia is here!

After adding in the chia seeds and cooking the mixture down, it thickens up beautifully! Hence, the name – magical jam. You won’t believe your eyes how thick this gets. Thanks to the chia seeds, we’re also pumping up the jam with all kinds of healthy omega fats, iron, fibre, protein, magnesium, and calcium. Who knew jam could be so healthy?

Enjoy this on toast, oatmeal, vegan overnight oats, thumbprint cookies, tarts, in smoothies, and so much more. Also, feel free to try this out with any seasonal fruit you wish.

1. In a medium-sized non-stick pot, bring the blueberries and 3 tbsp of maple syrup to a low boil. Stir frequently, and reduce heat to low-medium to simmer for about 5 minutes. Lightly mash the blueberries with a potato masher or fork, leaving some for texture.

2. Stir in the chia seeds until thoroughly combined and cook the mixture down until it thickens to your desired consistency, or about 15 minutes. Stir frequently so it doesn’t stick to the pot.

3. Once the jam is thick, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Add more maple syrup to taste if desired. Enjoy on toast, English muffins, oatmeal, vegan overnight oats, oat bars, tarts, cookies, banana soft serve, smoothies, and more. The jam should keep for at least a week in an air-tight container in the fridge.

A breakfast sandwich sounded like a good idea.

Banana slices, sunflower seed butter, and blueberry jam all sandwiched in a toasted English muffin….I couldn’t wait a second longer.

*Poof*…it was gone just like a magic trick.

~~~

We’re off for our flight back home this morning! I think my first meal back will be banana bread oatmeal with blueberry jam & sunbutter to top it all off…yum. And then about a week’s worth of salads because I kinda got off track with the salad-a-day challenge a bit. Whoops.. This last week of June is going to be a leafy one…

I’m going berry picking next weekend and wanted to make my own jam from what I pick. Because I can’t handle white sugar I decided to make my own, naturally sweetened jam and was looking around for a good recipe. Love that this one includes chia seeds and uses whole sweeteners. Thank you! I’m pinning it as we speak :).

I LOVED your strawberry version last year, can’t wait to make this jam! Never will I buy it at the store again, what’s the point when I can make this deliciousness?! I honestly can’t get enough of chia seeds either, so versatile!

this is perfect! love the easy jam-making method and no pectin needed; just…chia seeds! It’s amazing how thick they make things (and keep on making it thicker in my experience even a day or two later…chia seed pudding is super thick on day 3 compared to day 1 when stored in my fridge, at least for me). Wondering if the jam keeps on getting a bit thicker as time passes or if it levels off?

Oh, your timing is epic. I had a huge bowl of blueberries that I needed to hurry up and do something with. I just finished doing this! What didn’t fit into my mason jar is going into a cake in a few minutes. Thanks for this brilliant recipe!

I can’t wait to try this! How long do you think it would last in the fridge? Also SunButter is on super sale at the Loblaw’s stores in Toronto! AND they have a crunchy version, I haven’t tried it yet but I imagine its amazing!

I made mini jars of this today with mini jars of your kitchen sink nut butter to give out as gifts to 3 girlfriends who have birthdays this month. Nothing like a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread with fancy nut butter and jam!

I made my own raspberry jam last summer using a traditional recipe and I liked that it was homemade without added ingredients, but I still wished that it was lower in sugar. Berries are sweet on their own – they don’t need it! I definitely need to try your version this summer. :)